Transcript Communications Theory

Lecture 02: Communications Theory
IS246
Multimedia Information (FILM
240, Section 4)
Prof. Marc Davis
UC Berkeley SIMS
Monday and Wednesday 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Spring 2003
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/academics/courses/is246/s03/
IS246 - SPRING 2003
2003.01.27 - SLIDE 1
Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - SPRING 2003
2003.01.27 - SLIDE 2
Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - SPRING 2003
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Course Materials
• Purchase Course Reader at Copy Central on
Bancroft
– Corrected Course Readers available since Thursday
01/23
• Purchase Course Textbook
– David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An
Introduction. 6th Edition. McGraw Hill, New York,
2001.
– Course Textbook Web Site:
http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/artfilm/bordwell_6_filmart/index.mhtml
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Computer Orientation
• Wednesday 01/22
– Filled out SIMS/CIS
Account Request
Form
• Thursday 01/23
– Saw Kevin Heard and
his staff on the second
floor of South Hall for
access to SIMS
computing resources
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Goals of the Course
• Acquire theoretical and practical foundations to
analyze, design, and produce multimedia
information systems
– Media theory
– Media practice
– Current and future media systems and applications
• Learn to apply media theory to media design
• Gain further experience in project-based
learning and teamwork
• Develop an enduring framework and
methodology for media analysis and design
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Course Overview
• Course phases
– Theoretical and practical foundations
– Current issues and methods
– The future of multimedia
• Course assignments
– Theory application
– Short media production
– Final project
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The Media Problem
• Vastly more media will be produced
• Without ways to manage it (metadata
creation and use) we lose the advantages
of digital media
• Most current approaches are insufficient
are perhaps misguided
• Great opportunity for innovation and
invention
• Need interdisciplinary approaches to the
problem
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - SPRING 2003
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Communication Theory
• Encompasses a vast array of disciplines
– Mass communications, literary and media
theory, rhetoric, sociology, psychology,
linguistics, law, cognitive science, information
science, engineering, etc.
• Questions
– What and how we communicate
– Why we communicate
– What happens when communication “works”
and when it doesn’t
– How to improve communication
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Why Study Communication Theory?
• Our understanding of what, how, and why
we communicate informs our
– Theory of media and practice of media
production
– Analysis, design, and evaluation of
multimedia information system and
applications
– How we work together in teams
– How we read texts and talk with one another
in this course
– Law and public policy
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Etymology of “Communication”
• Communication - c.1384, from O.Fr. communicacion,
from L. communicationem (nom. communicatio), from
communicare "to impart, share," lit. "to make common,"
from communis (see common).
• Common - 13c., from O.Fr. comun, from L. communis
"shared by all or many," from L. com- "together" + munia
"public duties," those related to munia "office." Alternate
etymology is that Fr. got it from P.Gmc. *gamainiz (cf.
O.E. gemæne), from PIE *kom-moini "shared by all,"
from base *moi-, *mei- "change, exchange."
• Remuneration - c.1400, from L. remunerationem, from
remunerari "to reward," from re- "back" + munerari "to
give," from munus (gen. muneris) "gift, office, duty."
Remunerative is from 1677.
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What and How Do We Communicate?
• What “gifts” do we give each other?
• What do we do with these gifts?
• How does this gift exchange bring us
together (or not)?
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Action Items for Next Time
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Beyond the Conduit Metaphor
• Reddy
– Identification of the Conduit Metaphor
– Suggestion of alternate Toolmakers’ Paradigm
• Iser
– The reading process as a primary example of
the Toolmakers’ Paradigm
– Phenomenology of the reading process
• Barthes
– New conceptions of “author” and “text”
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - SPRING 2003
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The Conduit Metaphor
• Language functions like a conduit, transferring
thoughts bodily from one person to another
• In writing and speaking, people insert their
thoughts or feelings in the words
• Words accomplish the transfer by containing the
thoughts or feelings and conveying them to
others
• In listening or reading, people extract the
thoughts and feelings once again from the words
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Conduit Metaphor: Minor Frameworks
• Thoughts and feelings are ejected by speaking
or writing into an external “idea space”
• Thoughts and feelings are reified in this external
space, so they exist independent of any need for
living beings to think or feel them
• These reified thoughts and feelings may, or may
not, find their way back into the heads of living
humans
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Toolmakers’ Paradigm
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Semantic Pathology
• Semantic Pathology
– “Whenever two or more incompatible senses
capable of figuring meaningfully in the same
context develop around the same name”
• Example
– “This text is confusing.”
• Text(1) = The layout/font of the text is confusing.
• Text(2) = The argument of the text is confusing.
• Question: Where is Text(2)?
IS246 - SPRING 2003
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - SPRING 2003
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Iser on the Literary Work
• Literary work has two poles
– Artistic
• Text created by the author (Reddy’s signals)
– Esthetic
• Realization accomplished by the reader (Reddy’s
Repertoire Members)
• Literary work comes to life in the
interaction between text reader
– Virtual dimension
– Gaps
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Iser on the Reading Process
• Phenomenology of reading process similar
to phenomenology of perception
– Anticipation
– Retrospection
– Gestalt
– Illusion-building/Illusion-breaking
• Interaction with repertoire (familiar)
• Alien associations (unfamiliar)
• Text(1) and Text(2)
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - SPRING 2003
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Roland Barthes
• Death of the Author
– Who is the “I” that writes?
– The reader constructs the author by means of the text
• From Work to Text
– Method: “The text is experienced only in an activity of
production.”
– Plurality: “The text is plural.”
– Filiation: The author returns to his/her text as a guest
– Text is a social space which coincides only with a
practice of writing
IS246 - SPRING 2003
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - SPRING 2003
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Discussion Questions
• Reddy “The Conduit Metaphor”
– Atiba Phillips
– Rachna Dhamija
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Discussion Questions (Reddy)
• Reddy “The Conduit Metaphor” (Atiba Phillips)
– How does adherence to one framework or the other
affect the way we value media reviews or criticism;
i.e. do we place more value on statements made by
the “author” of the text / media, or are responses from
the community of receivers more valuable?
– How do frame orientations affect our behavior,
understandings of blame and possible avenues of
resolution, when there is miscommunication or when
communication breaks down?
– What implications does alternative models of
communication have on the way we preserve culture?
– In person to person communication; is speech
enough?
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Discussion Questions (Reddy)
• Reddy “The Conduit Metaphor” (Prof.
Davis)
– How can an implicit theory of communication
affect our analysis and design of multimedia
information systems?
– What are some examples of multimedia
information systems that embody the Conduit
Metaphor or the Toolmakers’ Paradigm theory
of communication? How might they be
redesigned?
IS246 - SPRING 2003
2003.01.27 - SLIDE 30
Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - SPRING 2003
2003.01.27 - SLIDE 31
Sign Up for Office Hours
• Tuesday, January 28 (This Week
Only)
– 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
• Thursday, January 30 (Regular Time)
– 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
• 314 South Hall
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Readings for Next Time
• Wednesday 01/29
– Ferdinand de Saussure: Course in General
Linguistics”
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